Letter from Palestine (18.12.00)

From Palestinian Socialist Students, (18.12.2000)

Dear comrades:

As to the two articles [ Intifada from the Bottom Up, Understanding the New Intifada] you referred to, we found them interesting. Our opinion is the following:

1) The writer was right about the unclear aim of the Intifada. Arafat wants to use it as a cheap card to play with, in front of the Israelis. To explain further: dozens are killed and injured every day while Mr. Arafat is still doing his DIPLOMATIC FLIGHTS AND COMMUNICATIONS!!! What Arafat wants is to go back to the same old, wrong policy of Oslo and put an end to all this mess - as he calls it. What WE really want from the Intifada is to put an end to the whole messy Oslo process. However, the most important question is: what will happen after that?? It's ironic to note that during the first Intifada and even in the period before that, no Palestinian citizen could dare to ask for the UN decisions to be implemented, now
even some of the leftist leaderships shout with great pride for the UN!!!

Now to us: we think that the Intifada isn't a card to be played in a game.

The Intifada is the only road for us. What we want from the Intifada is to force the whole world to forget Oslo and to study our case... to look at it in a balanced way! Maybe, even surely, we wasted 10 years from the Madrid talks up until three months ago (when the present Intifada started). It was like a tragic comedy play forgetting the four million refugees in the camps in Jordan, Syria, the Lebanon and the West Bank, forgetting hundreds of settelements which have now become a serious disease in our land, forgetting the many crimes of the Zionist army (Qana-1996, Hebron massacre-1994, etc...). But the historic period which we are now living in shows that the Palestinian people CANNOT tolerate this suffering
anymore.

To put it simply: the Intifada represents the most democratic poll on theso-called peace process (OSLO).

Lastly, we repeat that the Intifada isn't our preferred choice, it's a painful and bloody and exhausting way for both sides, but we chose it because it's the only road we have.

2) A funny thing we read in the article is what it says about our Arab leaderships. We are now happy to know that their stinking smell has reached everywhere, begining with Arafat himself and ending with the comical puppet of the Americans, Mubarak.(Maybe we should not mix politics and rude language when referring to these "Arab leaders", but it's the truth we can't avoid, so excuse us please).

As the Arab summit, we must say something: all the Arab regimes are hopeless,and even here in Palestine no one was interested in any talk about the "emergency" Arab summit, because we know that without any doubt
that a leader whose future is in the hands of US imperialism can't do anything for his own people.

As to Arafat's historical position in the "2nd Camp David" (as some of  the PA officials called it), we have no doubts that if Arafat could sell all Jerusalem he would do it now!! But due to the people's anger, after what was achieved at Oslo, he was afraid of losing his position so he acted out this play!!

Lastly dear comrades, we hope you could publish these two points on your web as soon as you can!

Comradely,
SY,

U.S.S.C-INTIFADA PALESTINE!
(Palestinian Socialist Students)